FEDESSA Conference & Trade Show 2021

Allan has been involved with self-storage for more than 7 years as the Head of Operations for Pelican Self Storage, which was founded in Denmark in 2009 by Nordic Real Estate Partners (NREP) with funding from M3 Capital Partners in London.   They have 34 locations throughout Denmark, Sweden and Finland.  Allan has been on the board of the Swedish Self-storage Association and also chairs the Danish Self storage Association.

Prior to joining Pelican Self Storage, Allan has been working for almost 20 years in the retail industry heading positions within Sales, Category Management, Marketing and Supply Chain Management. Most of the years at companies leading their industry in positions with a Nordic responsibility ie, COOP Nordic, Arla Foods and Duni AB. Allan holds a BSc in Economics and Business Administration from the Aarhus School of Business, Denmark.

President, Industry & Partner Relationships, Janus International.
Terry oversees and fosters relationships with industry technology partners, strategic merger and acquisition opportunities, international business development, and expanding relationships with institutional customers. He’s spent more than 19 years providing leading-edge technology tools to the self storage industry.

Emma joined Squab Group in 2019 as Store Manager at their new site in Evesham. She had previously worked for just over two years at Space Station Self Storage in Kings Heath as Duty Manager.  After a busy two years at the Evesham site which included the addition of container and two phase builds ahead of schedule, she is now the Group Sales Manager for all sites in the business. Emma has demonstrated herself as a social media whizz with helping the Evesham store gain new custom through her social media post. She has also provided support for other companies with Sitelink training.

Chris, a Commercial Manager, advises on all property investment and management activities to a number of privately owned, related companies. As part of the portfolio; Chris leads the expanding self storage business, blue self storage (previously known as Cardiff Self Storage), a container self storage operator based in Cardiff.

Chris believes that good quality, container storage operators have an important place in the market.  Historically, Container Operators were often thought of as the ‘lower end’ of the market – however with many Container Operators offering a high standard of quality, Chris is looking forward to working with similar minded operators within the Sector Forum to ensure that Containers are recognised in the Self Storage industry for their USP’s.

Chris is also a SSA UK Board member, representing container operator members.

Oliver Close is a Senior Director at CBRE Ltd and leads the firm’s activities in the self storage sector.  Oliver has over 22 years’ experience in self storage and has provided real estate advice to many of the major operators in the industry, across both Europe and the Asian self storage markets.  
Oliver worked on the stock market flotations of both Shurgard and Safestore, has executed a number of sale transactions in several jurisdictions and collaborates closely with the SSA UK, including with the production of the UK Self Storage Survey for a period of years.  CBRE’s activities include, in addition to valuations and transactions, general advisory, debt advisory, equity raising, capital allowance advice, corporate finance and site acquisition services.

Journalist, speaker and conference chair Declan Curry was one of the BBC's most recognisable business presenters and is an accomplished after dinner and keynote speaker, conference facilitator and awards host.

Declan presented business news on BBC One's breakfast television for almost a decade. He also hosted BBC Two's Working Lunch and programmes about strategy and leadership on BBC Radio 5 Live, and about personal finance on the BBC News TV channel.

His broadcasts on Breakfast covered a wide range of stories about business, work and money, he extracted news and views from chief executives, trade union leaders, stock market watchers, private investors and individual workers.

He formerly broadcast for the BBC's international news channel, BBC World, and he reported as the business commentator in the United States for ABC News for nearly a decade.

He currently broadcasts for the commerical news radio station, LBC News. He has been published in newspapers, magazines and websites in the UK, Ireland and the United States.

Dave is a well known and accomplished self storage professional with over 21 years of self storage experience.

For 17 years he was an executive board member at Safestore, joining at 15 stores and 40 employees. As a member of the management buyout team in 2004 and the IPO team in 2008, he played a major role in the company’s success and its growth to a FTSE 250 company with over 580 employees and 134 stores, revenues of £112m and EBITDA of £64m, making it the UK’s No 1.

Dave was also Managing Director of Space Maker Self Storage (12 stores) for 6 years before it was acquired by Safestore in 2016.  This provided Dave with invaluable experience in managing and operating a medium size self storage business.                                                                                                                          
Since retiring from Safestore in 2017, Dave has specialised in advising, directing, and assisting small and medium UK and European self storage and container operators to build and maximise their business potential through many areas including, team development, enquiry management and sales process implementation. Above all, Dave specialises in maximising revenue and therefore, EBITDA.

With a trusted network of specialist suppliers, Dave has a unique mix of industry knowledge, business growth experience, coaching and development skills and practical experience that enables him to add value to new start-ups, existing operators and to those looking to optimise their exit.  

Fred first started Attic Self Storage in Bow, East London in 2008.  Since then, Attic has won numerous awards for customer service and business innovation, as well as for its charitable works.  A Chartered Accountant with a restructuring finance background, Fred has always been focused on identifying opportunities for growth, change and improvement.  This led to Attic being the first UK operator to offer a full online check-in and account management portal in 2016, as well as the first operator in Europe (and possibly globally) to experiment with Virtual Reality in self storage.

Terry is the Head of Operations at Storage King UK, one of the leading and fastest-growing self storage companies in the United Kingdom. With more than 20 years of experience in the industry, Terry is well versed in the self storage sector and takes great pride in his extensive knowledge of the industry. He joined Storage King UK in 2010 and has played a key role in the business’s success over the last 10 years, where the business has grown to be the 5th largest in the UK. Terry joined Storage King with 11 years operational experience working at Shurgard Self Storage, overseeing multiple self storage facilities during a period of rapid growth for the company. Terry is passionate about providing outstanding customer service and believes that the key to any successful business lies in its ability to build a team that goes above and beyond to accommodate its customers.

Taking a break from his roles on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! Now, ‘Aviva Premiership Rugby Highlights’ and Sky 1’s ‘The Match’ and passing up a much higher paid job offer to host a massively prestigious event just because he loved his time with the self storage industry so much last time.  Mark injects a level of humour into the event while keeping things on track and managing all the questions from the audience.

Marc has Twenty years experience in advising real estate groups and SMEs on private capital fund-raisings and first time access to capital markets.  He has worked in New York and London within corporate finance and capital markets for blue chip institutions such as General Electric Capital, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch. Advised clients such as British Telecom and Telecom Italia on optimal funding strategy.  Amongst his many recent transactions he Initiated and advised on a £94 million raise for a Yorkshire-based PRS company and advised on £35 million fund-raise for UK based self-storage operator.

Simon is Executive Director, Head of Roadside & Automotive EMEA and joined CBRE in London in 2000 to set up Roadside & Automotive. He is responsible for advice covering all transactional and consultancy aspects of roadside and automotive related property throughout EMEA. This includes valuations, rent reviews, lease renewals, acquisitions, disposals, relocation, compulsory purchase and capital gains tax matters.  He has P & L responsibility for two Oil Company Portfolio Management and two car manufacturer contracts which includes providing transaction delivery in 25 Countries.

Ben has been managing Google Ads for self storage businesses for over a decade and in that time has learned plenty about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing to storage customers. Seeing how effective working exclusively in one industry can be, he set up Storist, a marketing agency that focuses on providing digital marketing services to self storage businesses. This focus allows Storist to better understand the customers and the marketplace and implement effective marketing strategies for all levels of budget.

 

Colin is the Managing Director of Janus International UK; a position he has held since joining the business.

Colin has over 30 years of experience in the construction industry. Before joining Janus, Colin spent 10 years with Schindler, the multi-national Swiss Elevator company. In his tenure at Schindler, he fulfilled various executive roles in several European countries.

Colin is a qualified Engineer and holds an MBA from Bolton University (Manchester, England) with various management qualifications from IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland).

Jes is co-founder and CEO of Storefriendly in Singapore having first started the business in 2011 and selling it in 2015.  In that time Storefriendly organically grew to a market share of 15% with 12 branches.  In 2015 Jes bought out eight franchisees and sold the business to SingPost as a self-operated business, but in the process retained control of the Storefriendly brand.  Storefriendly is relaunching the Storefriendly business in Singapore, this time with a focus on greater technological advancement for customer delight, space efficiency and regulatory compliance.  Jes is also the co-founder and CEO of Amicus Investment Management, a licensed fund management company with focus on self-storage investment.  Amicus is working with investors to bring new investors to self storage in Asia and Europe.  Before starting Storefriendly, Jes was Managing Director of Steel Storage Asia, the Asian operations of the world leader in self-storage building & design.  Prior to that he was managing director of Recall UK, a leading records management company.  Jes is a founding member of the Self Storage Association Asia.  He holds an MBA from the IMD Business School in Switzerland

Christel Land is a popular business coach/consultant and an experienced sales and marketing trainer with extensive experience working in the self storage industry.  She regularly delivers sales and marketing training sessions for the SSA UK and FEDESSA.

She has worked at a store level, local management level (Operations, Marketing) and central management (IT Manager) at City Self Storage.  She is also certified in various different coaching techniques, has worked as a full time business coach and currently teaches international coaching certifications.  Christel is also the author of the only book to date on sales in the self storage industry.  

Combining her engaging training style with an enormous amount of industry knowledge, Christel will give you all the tools you need to grow your sales skills and improve your performance.

Matthew Lilley is a Senior Asset Manager on LGIM’s Industrial Property Investment Fund with responsibility for driving performance of the specialist vehicle’s Trade and operational Self Storage sub-funds. These sectors comprise 30% of the c.£2.8bn fund with performance achieved through formulating and executing overall strategy and business plan oversight along with allocating the fund’s capital to new opportunities. Matthew has responsibility for expanding the fund’s self storage development and acquisition pipeline with an emphasis on meeting L&G’s ESG and sustainability requirements.

Matthew joined LGIM in May 2017 from JLL where he held the title of Associate Director. He had responsibility delivering added value for institutional clients within the Strategic Asset Management team. Prior to JLL Matthew worked closely with insolvency practitioners and banks in distressed asset workouts across sectors.

Matthew graduated from Cass Business School and the University of Nottingham. He holds an MA in Property Valuation and Law, BArch in Architecture along with RICS and CFA Society membership (IMC).

Izeldi leads the Alternatives Valuation and Advisory team at JLL with a focus on self storage. The specialist team in London works with local European teams to service clients across EMEA providing valuation and consulting advice to institutional investors, lenders, entrepreneurs and family offices.

 

She has more than 10 years’ experience in the  self storage industry, having worked for a family owned and operated self storage company in  South Africa. The company was a market leader and successfully sold to a listed self storage REIT on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. More recently, she authored valuation guidance notes for self storage properties for the RICS.  

Sarah Manning is Managing Director of Secure Stores Nationwide, supplier of shipping containers and related accessories.

Sarah has been in the container industry for the past 14 years, starting her career at Mr Box, which she ran and grew in to one of the largest market players.  Mr Box was then acquired by Mobile Mini in 2016, who Sarah continued to work with for a further 4 years.  Sarah has recently launched her own container business, Secure Stores Nationwide. Secure Stores specialist area is Self-Storage, with a strong focus on customer service.

Having read Land Management at Reading, George qualified as a Chartered Surveyor with Strutt & Parker.  At 25 he took his third gap year cycling across Europe and Africa finishing in Cape Town in 2010.  For the past decade he has been focused on his family’s diversified farming and commercial property businesses in Northamptonshire which includes overseeing the growth and management of Loc-Box.

After military service and time in the private sector, Richard Mullender joined the Metropolitan police.

Richard Mullender worked as a detective investigating serious crimes. Then one life-changing day he trained to become a hostage negotiator. His skills were so well regarded that he was appointed Lead Trainer at Scotland Yard’s National Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit. Richard was part of the team that negotiated the high-profile release of three UN workers held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2004 and Richard’s listening expertise contributed to the intelligence that informed the rescue of Norman Kember in Iraq in 2006.

In the decade since leaving the police, Richard has established his own independent consultancy where his skills have been in high demand.

Richard Mullender has provided training for law enforcement agencies including: Scotland Yard Crime Academy, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), The South African Directorate of Special Operations, aka The Scorpions Police forces in Brazil, the Philippines and Cyprus.

He has also advised international government bodies including: The United Nations, The World Food Programme (as consultant to the Head of Security), The Maltese Government (pre-Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting), The Indian secret services.

Mullender is not remotely corporate. Expect the unexpected and have fun.

Marc Oursin has been the Chief Executive Officer of Shurgard Self-Storage since January 2012.  During that time, the portfolio has almost doubled in size to around 250 self storage centres in 7 European countries.  He also managed the listing of the business on the Euronext stock exchange.  Marc has been a board member and national council member of FEDESSA.

Prior to working for Shurgard, Marc held different executive positions for major retailers including Sport 2000 in France, Promodes in France and Switzerland, and Carrefour from in France, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan and Belgium.  Marc holds an MBA from Essex Business School Paris and a Master degree in Agricultural Engineering from AgroParisTech.

Like you, Geoff Ramm, the creator and author of Celebrity Service and OMG Marketing, knows that great customer service leads to lucrative, repeat business but a greater experience leads to global recognition.  So how can you design a customer experience that has you talked about for decades to come?

Geoff knows all the tricks to make you craved by your customers, envied by your competitors and raved about in your industry.  In his interactive presentation you will not only discover out-of-this-world ideas, you will be excited to implement them too.  He’s challenged and inspired entrepreneurs, companies and organisations across six continents to create award winning ideas to outperform the competition.  Author of the Celebrity Service & OMG book trilogy, he has also been awarded the PSAE award of speaking Excellence.  Oh and his on-stage presence and infectious enthusiasm and humour will have you on the edge of your seats.

Ollie Saunders is the Lead Director for Alternatives across EMEA at JLL, where he has specialised throughout his career since the mid-1990s in self storage from a valuation, brokerage and corporate finance perspective, enabling him and his team to provide first-hand transactional experience with valuation professionalism.   

He leads a team of more than 10 surveyors and data analysts working across Europe in more than 12 countries and has transacted a number of sales of self storage assets across EMEA, as well as equity raises.  He joined JLL in 2014 from Deloitte where he was an equity partner and the head of valuation.   

Ollie co-authored the UK Self Storage Association Survey between 2009 and 2014, and the FEDESSA Survey since 2014, and also authored the RICS guide on valuation methodology for self storage and other alternative asset types.

Rennie is the current CEO of the Self Storage Association UK & FEDESSA, having previously been the CEO of the Australasian Self Storage Association for over 9 years.  Rennie has extensive knowledge of the self storage industry across the world, from the developing Asian markets through to the birthplace of self storage in the USA.  He has over 22 years of association management experience 17 at CEO level.  Rennie is also on the Board of the Institute of Association Leadership, has an MBA and completed the Oxford University High performance leadership programme.

Gavin is the CEO at Stora - a new self storage software product for online bookings, payments and business automation - and MD at StoreStuff - a Northern Ireland-based operator of self storage facilities. Gavin was previously the CEO or co-founder at multiple technology companies including PiggyPot, Yomo and Turbulenz (acquired by Larian Studios). Prior to that, Gavin was a technology investor at $15billion private equity and VC firm, Summit Partners. 

Jennet is an Executive Director at CBRE who joined 15 years ago to set up the residential research team.  She is an economist with over twenty years’ experience and currently leads the UK research team, with a focus on the big issues in the real estate world; identifying trends, analysing the market, and providing clients with unrivalled insight and ideas.
Jen regularly produces bespoke reports for clients that help inform their strategic decision-making process. In addition, she produces a wide-ranging programme of thought leadership, looking at issues such as placemaking, premium pricing and the impact of regeneration. Jen spends a significant amount of time presenting to clients (developers and buyers) to keep them up to date with market developments.

Daniel is the senior research analyst for alternative and living markets at JLL. The research team at JLL provides commentary, thought leadership and consultancy services through the creation of market leading data, forecasts, publications and presentations.

Daniel has nearly 8 years’ experience in the real estate sector and has developed a particular focus on the self storage sector, having been involved in the production of the FEDESSA survey for the past 6 years.

Nick Wheeler is Founder and Managing Director of Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts, the leading mail order clothes company. Nick founded Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts in 1986 while studying geography at Bristol University. After two years with Bain & Co, strategy consultants, he went "full time" in November 1989. Charles Tyrwhitt sells shirts for men, women, and children both on and offline. The company philosophy has always been to "surprise, delight and excite colleagues and customers" and to make it impossible to buy a better shirt. Starting with just a few flyers and a word processor, Nick's story is one of determination to succeed alongside a true understanding of his customers. Additionally, Nick Wheeler is a nonexecutive director and shareholder in The White Company, a leading mail order and retail company selling household goods. As a keynote speaker, Nick inspires his audiences with his story of how with self-belief, anything is possible.

Gabriella’s expertise is in project and change management, which she has successfully deployed to deliver Sourcing and Supply Chain risk related projects and initiatives and subsequently Environmental and Sustainability programmes.

Her ethos is all about working collaboratively. She believes that a successful business will encourage cross-functional working, where employees are supported to deliver challenging projects together.  In past roles, she has built a number of very successful teams from scratch.

Gabriella has been working within large, complex FMCG and Retail organisations in a variety of roles for the last 20+ years. This has given her a unique insight into how organisations work and how decisions are being made. Both at Diageo and Orange/Everything Everywhere her roles were based within Procurement & Supply Chain functions; at Orange, her role involved engaging buying teams to adopt supply chain risk policies and procedures. During her time at Orange, she project managed a France Telecom–led global Procurement transformation programme.

She joined Big Yellow Self Storage in July 2017 as the in-house Head of CSR. Her responsibilities cover Environment and Climate Change, as well as social aspects, such as running the Big Yellow Foundation.